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Page 269
"Can you keep a secret, Adam?" Alinor whispered. The boy nodded excitedly. "Very well. Perhaps Owain will have his knife and Geoffrey his lute for Twelfth Day presents. Now, do not tell or you will spoil their pleasure, and that is a bad way to repay their kindness to you. Ah, here are our attendant gentlemen. Well, Ian? How do they look?"
Ian grunted approval, more interested in correcting the carriage of weapons than in appearance. Alinor straightened the folds of the tunic at Owain's back and pulled at Geoffrey's to even the hemline. Ian promptly undid Alinor's work by resettling both sword belts, but eventually he was satisfied and stood back. Owain was tastefully attired in two shades of soft blue; Geoffrey in shades of green. Both looked well and would neither conflict with nor outshine the principal actors.
"Thank you, lord," Geoffrey said, going to his knee to kiss Ian's hand.
Owain echoed the gesture and the words.
"No thanks to me," Ian remarked, tousling both heads gently. "To my shame, I did not even think of having your clothes sent back to the keep to be cleaned. Thank Lady Alinor for both thought and labor."
Both went to kneel, but Alinor forestalled them by drawing them into her arms. "I am very happy to welcome you into my family and into my heart. I know you are too old to need a mother, yet there are some things a man wishes to tell or to ask a woman, and a mother is a safe person to listen to tales and troubles. If I can help you, remember I am most willing."
Ian gathered the group with his eyes. "You go first, Adam. Then Joanna and Alinor. Owain, lend me your shoulder. I can stand but I am not sure of the stairs. Geoffrey, do you follow, and be ready to grab my belt if my knee should fail. I do not desire to enter the hall on my face."

 
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